Mass Media World and Social Mentalities Change

Transcription

1 The "Alexandru Ioan Cuza"University of Iasi The Faculty of Philosophy and Social - Political Sciences The Ph.D. School of Social - Political Sciences Sociology Field Mass mass media Word and Social Mentalities Change Abstract of the Ph.D.Thesis Ph.D Coordinator: Nicu Gavriluţă, Ph.D Professor Ph.D. Student Teodora Anca Tompea IAŞI

2 Acknowledgment Special thoughts of gratitude and particular respect to Nicu Gavriluta, Ph.D. Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Political Sciences with The "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University, who with wisdom, patience and professionalism constantly guided me. Acknowledgment and gratitude to the members of the Counseling Board that stood by me and always supported me, Mrs. Doina Balahur, Ph.D. Professor, Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu, Ph.D. Professor, and not least Mr. Dumitru Stan, Lecturer, Ph.D. Professor. All along this period of my thesis achievement I worked with the staff from several institutions to whom I thank for all their support. Among these it is The "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, The "Gheorghe Zane" Institute of Economic and Social Research, The Romanian Academy, Iaşi.Branch These experts supported me with information and feedback at every stage. Gratitude thoughts I have for all specialists and experts who gave me support in the performance of my research activities, encroaching upon their personal time. 2

3 Contents Acknowledgment...2 Introduction... 3 CHAPTER I The general frame of the paper. Contemporary sociological perspective on mentalities The mentalities influence upon the social images Mental and social models Characteristics of Mentality Mass media influence on collective mentalities Public opinion and social mentality making The impact of mass media on social mentalities CHAPTER II Manipulation 2.1. Manipulation. Concept and definition Manipulation techniques in the history of human society Classification criteria of the manipulation techniques Manipulation specific to television Misinformation Propaganda Manipulation techniques specific to the Newscast CHAPTER III Stereotypes 3.1. Concept. Definitions Stereotypes characteristic Classification criteria of stereotypes Ethnocentrism

4 CHAPTER IV Migration and Multiculturalism 4.1. Migration Multiculturalism CHAPTER V Research for the analysis of the Romanian immigrants image in the British press 5.1. The goal of the research project Research methodology CHAPTER VI Image of the Romanian immigrants in the British press 6.1. Quantitative analysis Qualitative analysis The Chapter VII Instead of conclusion 7.1. Conclusion Research contributions Research future directions Bibliography List of appendices List of tables List of figures

5 INTRODUCTION The emergence of various forms of mass communication, over time determined changes of the societies and, in particular, those of the social mentalities. Printing, Radio, telephone, TV, and especially the Internet, with all its forms which allow the transmission of information and implicitly the socialization, transformed communication into a global phenomenon, an aspect which has led to intense cultural exchanges. The mass media culture is represented in images, sounds and performances we download from mass media channels or even from the street, when they are offered intentionally or not and generate different effects. All these provide the symbols, myths and generally speaking the resources that help the building of a common culture for most individuals. The mass media has taken over from the other authorities of the civil society the socialization role of the individuals as it helps with the making of political opinions, hierarchies of values and social behaviors. The mass media can be perceived as an anti-socializing agent, a factor of disturbance, externally imposed in order to prevent the legitimate process of socialization, provided by family, school, religion or group membership. Due to the generated influence and effects, the mass media was recognized as having a training role of a society social representations, also due to the fact that it helps to synthesize the individual experiences and correlation into a coherent system. As the societies develop, all mass media categories adjust themselves to reflect the new created events and situations for both the acquiring or maintaining of a position of each in the system as well as due to the rapid way in which the social problems occur in the public sphere. After 1990, in Romania the mass media developed extremely fast, both in the written and visual state system, but mostly in the private one. Competition allowed a selection made by the Romanian society, according to the meeting of the social needs on an individual level, but on the group level as well. Mass media, in all its aspects, due to the diversification of the advanced 5

6 technology items systematizes the society in messages emitters and receivers. The emitters are those who hold the economic or political power who are allowed to exercise this power through the mass media, legitimized by mass media too. Over time, the role of each individual in the community was radically changed. In the traditional societies, the individual's identity was a fixed, established, strong one and was according to his role in the community, unlike the contemporary period when the identity becomes more mobile, personal, even self-reflexive and is subject to change, but remains a social one, depending on the recognition of the others. In post-modernism, man is no longer driven by the group of affiliation, but by the reference group which values and ideals it gathers from the mass media. The motivation of choosing the theme and its novelty The way in which the mass media represents a means of social mentalities change is an older concern from my studentship while working as a volunteer at North East Radio, particularly for a documentary making on Migration in Media. It was rewarded by the Soros Foundation for the documentaries contest radio in The choice of the Ph. D. thesis is grounded on the fact that I worked in various audio and video media, namely Europa FM, then the West Regional TV Arad, both as a reporter and in the news processing and editing. These experiences allowed me to detect and analyze the way in which social mentalities can be changed through the mass media. Currently I am the producer of a cultural broadcast, Tourist at Home, of DIGI 24 Iasi, for over two years. The above mentioned allow me to argue the choice of the theme, in identifying the role of mass media in building and promoting a culture identity ideologies in relation to other identities, namely the image of the Romanian immigrants in the British press. 6

7 The period, the research stages and the institutions I worked with. The research performed in this Ph.D. thesis was performed on several levels, in different stages, namely: 1. Documentation, collection, summarization and data analysis, as the grounds of the theoretical chapters of the present work. 2. Selection of the the first 5 top British issues online with the largest audience, according to the latest audience public data. 3. Extracting the articles according to the keyword on the Romanian immigrants image in the UK. The articles were selected from the issues between December 1, 2013-March 1, 2014 so that to correlate a major intercultural social event raising of the labor restrictions for the Romanians in U.K. - with articles from the British press on the subject. 4. Grouping of the selected articles on: themes, content, keywords, types of articles, news, opinions, comments. 5. The analysis was performed both from a qualitative perspective: theme, correlativeinterpretative, as well as quantitative, there were used measurement indicators of the issue audience, the distribution number in social media, number of reviews, but also indicators based on coding of relevant items: the number of articles per issue, by category, article size etc. 6. Achieving of the case study report based on the performed analyses out and results correlation with the theoretical elements of the project. By the proposed methodology this research provides a radiography of the Romanians image in the British press. On the basis of this radiography a series of actions can be initiated that contribute to the intercultural communication streamlining: image campaigns of the Romanians and Romania in the British press; educational campaigns of the Romanians immigrants aimed o increase the intercultural competence. Throughout the period of the thesis achievement I worked with staff from the following institutions: The "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University, The "Gheorghe Zane" Institute of Economic and Social Research, The Romanian Academy, Iaşi Branch, who supported me with information and feedback at every stage. 7

8 The aim, goals and research hypotheses This research was aimed to analyze the image of Romanian immigrants in the British press from several perspectives. The research project aimed to identify and explain the mechanisms of mentalities social change through the mass media. The hypothesis of the case study started from several theories and research that will be exemplified in the project that the mass media has an important role in building and promoting identity ideologies of a culture in relation to other identities. The operational hypotheses of the research were the following: I 1 The publications approaching an average or popular target (a publication called tabloid in the field) are concerned in a greater measure by the Romanian immigrants themes. The hypothesis was confirmed based on the higher number of articles published by the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. I 2 The articles from the quality publications have a high diffusion potential and interaction with the public. The hypothesis is partially confirmed by the study data. The Guardian, although it has the fewest articles on the topic, recorded the highest number of shares. On the other hand, the number of comments related to the number of articles is similar to the Daily Mail. I 3 The preponderant conservative publications approach the UK immigrants topic with a higher frequency when compared to publications supporting other parties. The hypothesis is confirmed according to the articles number analysis on publication after the political affiliation of the publication). I 4 -The tabloid/popular type articles have the most negative tone about the Romanian immigrants in UK. The hypothesis is confirmed both by the the quantitative and qualitative analysis. I 5 The conservative affiliation publications from a political point of view tend to have a high degree of ethnocentrism and to operate with rather negative stereotypes of foreigners. The hypothesis is confirmed both by the analysis of the quantitative data and the qualitative one. 8

9 I 6 -the theme of the Romanian immigrants is approached according to the political agenda of the publications. So, the publications that criticize the government use this theme as an argument of the politicians incompetence. Thus, based on qualitative analysis, the hypothesis is confirmed. The structure of the work The work consists of seven thematic chapters, each analyzing one crucial issue in the undertaken approach. Chapter I. The general Frame of the Paper. Contemporary Sociological Perspective on Mentalities. The first chapter consists of six sections, out of which the first three are centered on mentality theories and their characteristics, social images, social models. The last three chapters focus on mass media influence on the collective mentality, the role of public opinion and the creation of social mentalities, as well as the impact of mass mass media on mentalities. In the first section The mentalities influence on social images we pointed out that mentalities are those providing the information processing in specific interpretation horizons which provide information flows in well delineated cultural spaces. The differences in perception, either individual or group ones, generate modifications which, on a social level end up in creating social inequalities and inequities. The comparative assessments are designed to identify the causes of these situations, even if most of the times the attention is directed to effects. The more the group to which it is addressed is more homogeneous, the easier controllable is the behavior of its members, and the results are predictable by those who control a certain social image with well defined purpose. Regardless of the epoch or historical period, the mentalities were based on a cultural model specific to the time to which the quantity was added, but especially the quality of the 9

10 social information. In this context the differences that occur in the collective mentality are explained In the second section Mentalities and social models we showed that a crucial element that we can consider in analyzing the social models is given also by how the attitudes give rise to the social reactions. Globally, these phenomena are used to direct the subjective assessment of reality and the generation of social models that can stand on the basis of certain interests. The ways of information transmission consider the mentality of a particular group or another, namely the beliefs, possibly prejudices in relation to which certain acceptance or rejection reactions are predictable. In the third section Mentalities characteristics I pointed out that attitudes are influenced by mentalities and they are transformed into actions of social groups in all areas of social life and they are essential elements, either the conserving or in developing economic, political and social structures. It is well known and understood that the relation between mentality and social attitude differs from one society to another and within, from one period to another. According to the sent message we notice however that the mass media can be perceived as an anti-socializing agent, a disturbance factor coming from the outside with social effects. The mass media, especially in today's society, determines the individual to become an antisocial being, because it has all the necessary tools to induce certain perceptions, easily accepted given the rather high power of persuasion. The informational progress allows the mass media to use tools which could or could not change mentalities, according to the degree of organization at the community level. Acting individually, the change can occur more easily and more often later on we can see mass attitudes in this context. The more developed a society, the more the media role was changed meaning the increasing of its influence power. 10

11 In section four, Mass media influence on collective mentality I exemplified the role of the written press, both in Europe and in America, taking as reference in this regard the famous newspaper The Times, appeared in the nineteenth century. As in our time, we find in those days sensational news or extreme social cases that attract or provoke violence. It is well known first tabloid newspaper, the Detroit Evening News (1875), published by Edward Willis Scripps ( ). In Europe, the significant burst remains in the UK, particularly by the Hammsworth brothers: Alfred and Harold, who in 1888 founded the weekly Answers. But this time the addressability is also directed to the working class, hitherto neglected. It is more than obvious that mass media has a variety of instruments through which a powerful influence on people's mentality can be exerted. In Romania TVR1 broadcasts are focused on current news, life experiences, technology making this mass media channel accessible for all social categories. I pointed out in this section the initiative in 2004 of the French Cultural Center of Iasi, to question the theme of television as a "brainwashing instrument". The concerns about the way the television induces to the public a certain type of behavior, and especially of a social perception of some news or well pointed information. However, television is directly or indirectly, premeditated or not involved in the generation of certain mentalities features by the so called "brainwashing". In section five Public opinion and social mentality building we showed that there are situations when public opinion is associated to a significant group of people. The factors determining the building of a public opinion refers to a temporary space, to which culture and tradition are added. The quality of information offered by the mass media determines the building of contradictory public opinions on social life. The messages we receive, not only by video systems, but also by the audio ones, do nothing but generating attitudes, behaviors, ideas about one aspect or another. 11

12 Therefore, the mass media impact on the shaping and transforming public opinion has obviously a clear role in inducing ideas, according to the type of information transmitted. Basically, a certain level of influence on social mentalities is shaped in all types of communities,. In section six The impact of mass media on social mentalities I underlined the fact that mass media includes a lot of mass media means, most of which are accessed are the electronic ones: television, radio, social networking, online systems. Their role is to provide widespread dissemination of information, as a result of the desire of people to be informed. As a principle, the education role in informing, regardless of the ways in which it is transmitted is to create attitudes, behaviors, value systems etc. When talking about children or young people, their character is under progress and therefore, they should be guided so as to get a proper, viable, mentality, based on real values, without artificial fabricated elements, created with a purpose. The fast, efficient and useful way to find out news, to transmit information regardless of distance, or its extension, is the Internet. There is a mutually beneficial relationship with mass media because the Internet provides information by all its means, which, in its turn is used and processed for all types of mass media. The mass media evolution is directly proportional to the evolution of the society, in which social mentalities are differently distinguished from the distant or near past references. In the past 20 years, Romania has gone through many changes, including the media level. Currently it can be "consumed" absolutely everything we had not under the dictatorship, and in this respect, the audiences and the circulation says everything. The Romanians do not want complicated, indigestible news, they want show: tragedies, explosions, murders, road incidents, violence, blood, tears, drama, misery, political circus. 12

13 Chapter II. Manipulation This chapter consists of seven sections, out of which the first two refers to the definition of the concept, as well as to the manipulation techniques. The third one, The classification criteria of the manipulation techniques show various classifications of the manipulation techniques, based either on the tools by which the manipulation process is induced, or on the desired or resulted effect. Thus, I considered the amplitude criteria and effect criterion of the equipment used, where I presented some specific elements. In the first case, the Romanian researchers took from the field literature the ideas according to which the existence of a manipulation or other are determined by the amplitude of the changes they generate. In the second case, I identified several specific mass media subcategories, classified as it follows: Framing: Detail plan, Gross- plan, Foreground, Average plan, American plan, Whole plan, General plan, Long shot, Location framework; Crossings: Zooming, Panning; Mounting frame, Sound, Directing, Colors. In section four, Manipulation specific to television I emphasized that the existence of television as the main means of informing any individual, predominantly in urban areas, allowed a series of manipulative techniques to freely get into the news sphere, as well as into the daily or weekly broadcasts. In this respect, most of the television stations in our country directly and sometimes indirectly use persuasion ability by broadcasts that may induce certain ideas or by technical elements that can have an impact on the individual and group perceptions. In this respect, I broadly presented the twelve manipulation techniques specific to television: Manipulation by picture; Manipulation by shooting; Manipulation by cutting; Manipulation by the off comment; Manipulation by pagination; Manipulation by omission; Manipulation by the mass media gossip; Manipulation by censorship; Manipulation by "hide showing" procedure; Manipulation by charisma; Manipulation by journalists; Manipulation by non-verbal means of communication. In the next section, Misinformation, I showed that this one as a manipulation technique is the most common one. In all types of communities, misinformation and is was a tool often used for different interests, predominantly political ones. The effects redound upon the slightly 13

14 unstable public or the one which due to the lack of time do not make their own ideas, or does not verify the released information and perceive it accordingly. Section six covers issues related to Propaganda as a social phenomenon, signaled for the first time in the history of Rome. Developing on the one hand the social phenomenon, and on the other hand the manipulation technique, resulted in finding/ identifying several types of propaganda, according to the group it serves, or the content, reference to a specific sociocultural, political or economic field, differentiation being given by the ideology, values sheet, the existent interests and objectives. The last section, Manipulation techniques specific to the newscast, consists of other seven section describing the items related to: Selection of news and their order; News length; Influencing by titles; Cinematographic effects; Effects of image or cutting processing; Psychological cutting; Using opinion leaders. It is interesting to reveal that in the case of the last technique, the opinion leaders are used to support a particular message, anticipated by the introducer, producer or manufacturer. As a manipulation technique the psychological cutting is based on the juxtaposition of alternatives news, that generate contrary emotions, as image processing effects have a direct, powerful and targeted impact on a social group. CHAPTER III. Stereotypes In this chapter, including four sections, we pointed out that stereotypes represent a manner of people categorizing, then a number of its features of the interpretations that can depreciate or create a negative context, leaving no opportunity to be exploited certain human potential. In the section regarding the Ethnocentrism I showed that it is viewed as a lack of acceptance of the cultural diversity and intolerance towards other groups and is highly related to the individual identity making and the desensitization of the intercultural communication is a preliminary condition for this. When someone's opening to intercultural communication increases, the competence of that person in intercultural communication increases too. 14

15 Entertainment programs use stereotypes in humorous purposes or to get credibility, but any of them is based on stereotypes that existed in audience and using communication means to be reinstated and to enhance their effects. CHAPTER IV. Migration and Multiculturalism Chapter four is the last of the ones regarding the theoretical part of this paper. In the first part I showed that unlike other demographic phenomena (eg. Fertility), the impact of migration is a complex one. Admission to the EU led to the cancellation of barriers on the labor market for citizens of European Union member states. In the second part I approached several issues related to multiculturalism, in particular that mass media alternative can provide a means to engage ethnic minorities in the political discourse in order to help the approach of the problems regarding the marginalization of minority cultures. press CHAPTER V. The analysis study of the Romanian immigrants image in the British Chapter five is divided into two sections and five sub-sections. 15

16 In the first section, The Goal of the research project, I presented the aspects regarding the study performed in order to analyze the image of the Romanian immigrants in the British press from several perspectives. The Goal of the research project is to identify and explain the changing mechanisms of the social mentalities by means of mass media. The research methodology is presented in section two and in the first two sections of this study I determined its stages, as well as the content analysis on the Romanian immigrants in the British press. The stages of the study were the following: 1. Selection of the 5 top online British publication enjoying the largest audience, according to the latest audience public data. 2. Abstracting the articles according to the keyword on Romanian immigrants image in the UK. The articles were selected from the issuing between December 1, 2013-March 1, 2014 in order to correlate a major intercultural social event raising of the labor restrictions for Romanian in the UK - with articles from the British press on the subject. 3. Structuring of the selected articles on: themes, content, keywords, types of articles, news, opinions, comments. 4. The analysis was achieved both fro a qualitative perspective: correlative interpretative theme, as well as a quantitative one: public audience measurement indicators were used, the number of distribution in social media, the number of reviews, but also indicators based coding of relevant elements: number of articles per publication, by category, article size etc. 5. Achieving the case study report based on the performed analyses and correlation of the results with the theoretical elements of the project. By the proposed methodology this study provides a radiography of the Romanians image in the British press. On the basis of this radiography a series of actions could be initiated that contributing to the efficient intercultural communication by: image campaigns of Romanians and Romania in the British press; education campaigns of the Romanians immigrants to increase the intercultural competence. 16

17 All the research project activities comply with the professional deontological rules, both in terms of the methodological rules as well as the data collection procedures, the analysis and interpretation of results. In the context of the content analysis I pointed out the fact that there are some specific features, namely: Objectivity, the Systematic and quantitative character, namely to identify and count the occurrences of a feature or text dimension of the analyzed messages, to achieve more general explanations about this type of phenomena and the specific processes. In sub-section three, Audience of the online publications, I presented the five online publications: The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror. Based on the audience data published by the National Readership Survey audience I selected the articles included in the qualitative and quantitative analysis, that is December 1, March In this context I showed that in the period between April March 2014, the telegraph.co.uk website. was accessed in average by 7,574,000 million visitors per month, 3,524 million per week and 812, 000 per month. In the next section I established the analysis grille, how to make the database and the variables presentation. For each relevant article from the point of view of the subject of this research appeared in the publications mentioned above I performed a quantitative analysis grille. Thus, I made a quantitative analysis of the assessment indicators, according to a number of criteria, namely: positioning and percentage of the analyzed terms, the direction of the article with reference to the impact on a neutral reader article related to the analyzed term. The analysis grille includes the following items: Article code, each article has a sole code/number when it is inputted into the database; The source, the name of the online publication; The type of the online publication; The publication date of the article; Link, web address of the article; 17

18 The English title of the article; The Romanian title of the article; The political affiliation of the publication; Key words in the title; Officials, the names of the officials mentioned in the article; Number of shares; The site category; Author; Number of comments; Site traffic; Word count; Number of images. A database was created which includes all the previously mentioned items as variables. Each analysed article received a score for each item. After completing the analysis grille for all the articles considered to be relevant, the next step was the scientific processing of the obtained data. For a better understanding of the results the data is presented as graphics/diagrams and tables. The quantitative analysis of the assessment indicators implies the assessment of each article in the online press using several criteria such as: The placement of the analysed term/s signifies visibility, the prominence of a term in the content of an article. The indicator is measured on scale from 1 to 3, as follows: 3 - the term is used in the title/over-title/under-title, introduction, illustration; 2 the term is used in the first fifth (top 20%) of the article; 1 the term is used in the last four fifths (bottom 80%) of the article. The weight of the analysed term/s The weight or dominance signifies the measure in which a term holds supremacy or is dominated by another term within an article. This indicator was measured on a scale from 1 to 3, as follows: 3 the term is the main, and eventually sole subject of the article; 18

19 2 the term appears in the article along with other terms, and each has approximately the same coverage; 1 the term is mentioned only in passing. The tendency of the analysed article The impact of the article on a neutral reader reported to the analysed term: If the article creates a positive or a negative attitude towards the analysed term; It also refers to the feeling induced by reading the article in question, assessing in the same terms of positive/negative. In order to measure the tendency of the analysed articles a scale from -2 to + 2 was used, where -2 means strongly negative (words with a negative connotation are used in the article) and +2 means strongly positive. (words with a positive connotation are used in the article). In sub-chapter five, The public of the British on line publications, I have selected the first five online British publications with the largest public, for which I have measured the public of the main publications in Great Britain for the time between April 2013 March 2014 for the entire population aged over 15 years old, for readers by genre. The official classification of the press in Great Britain groups publications into three categories, respectively Quality, Middle market and Tabloid. In the present research, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Independent are quality publications, Daily Mail addresses the average public, respectively the Middle market category, and Daily Mirror is a Tabloid. In order to analyse The public of the main British publications for the term April 2013 March 2014 I focused on grouping the readers by age and genre. The demographic classifications in the UK deal with definitions by social class, which are used to describe, measure and classify people by the various social classes, income and gain levels, for marketing research, statistics regarding standards of living, statistical research and analyses. The latter were useful in the understanding the public of the British publications by previously established demographic categories and location, meaning London, Scotland and the rest of Great Britain. 19

20 CHAPTER VI. The image of Romanian immigrants in the British press Chapter six is made up of two sub-chapters regarding the quantitative analysis as well as the qualitative analysis. The performed radiography identifies the social mentalities change mechanisms through mass media, especially the image of Romanian immigrants in the British press. I performed the quantitative and qualitative analysis in order to track the role of mass media in building and promoting identity ideologies of a culture compared to others. THE OCCURRENCE EVOLUTION OF THE TERM ROMANIAN(S) IN THE ONLINE BRITISH PRESS The occurrences distribution of the term Romanian/Romanians in the online British press within the analysed timeframe Between December 1st 2013 March 1 st 2014 the monitored term occurred in 53 articles in the monitored online press (the first five publications with the largest public). publication Diagram No.1 The number of articles regarding Romanian immigrants by each The sources for the news are the websites off of which there were drawn off and analysed the articles regarding the theme of the Romanian immigrants. The most articles (18) appeared in the Daily Mail publication, which published 12 articles regarding the theme of the Romanian immigrants, the least attention paid to this subject coming from The Guardian, with 6 articles published in the analysed 3 months. Daily Mail and Daily Mirror are middle market publications, tabloid respectively, which present sensational subjects 20

21 and stories, or which give sensational connotations to ordinary subjects, these are negative connotations more often than not. Unlike these two, The Guardian is a quality publication oriented more towards political and macro-economical subjects; the theme of migration being treated as a problem from the perspective of the governmental policies. According to the placement on the market, the tabloid publications are read more by people from inferior social categories, with a low level of education. Table 13. The number of articles regarding Romanian immigrants, by the publication type Publications categories Number of articles Quality 23 Middle market 18 Popular/Tabloid 12 According to the official classification of the press in Great Britain, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Independent are quality publications, Daily Mail addresses the average public, and Daily Mirror is a tabloid. Therefore, it can be remarked that in the Quality publications there were 23 articles regarding the Romanian immigrants in Great Britain, in the ones addressing the average public, 18 and in the tabloid publication there were 12 articles in the analysed timeframe. According to various studies 1 and analyses performed in the previous years, each publication supports or promotes the ideas and candidates of certain political parties. Therefore, The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail are publications greatly supporting ideas of the Conservative Party, The Guardian and The Independent have been supporting in recent years the vision of the Liberal Democratic Party (the second publication also being the most equidistant of all the analysed) and the tabloid publication Daily Mirror promotes the ideas of the Labour Party. 1 accessed on accessed on accessed on

22 Table 14. The number of articles regarding the Romanian immigrants, by the political affiliation of the publication Parties in Great Britain Number of articles The Conservative Party 26 The Liberal Democratic Party 15 The Labour Party 12 In the publications supporting the Conservative Party there were 26 articles regarding the Romanian immigrants theme. The publications supporting either the Liberal Democratic Party, or the Labour Party have published 15, and 12 articles on the analysed theme. This situation is explained by the fact that on the one hand tabloids are included in the category of publications with conservative and labour affiliations, on the other hand the 22

23 representative parties of the two orientations, have tried to make their official campaign in the British press by being the opponents of migration for labour. The occurrence evolution of the analysed term over the three months monitored During the three analysed months, the subject was in the centre of the mass media attention during the week between December 29, 2013-January 4, During this time there were published 21 articles in the five monitored publications. In the days of January 1, 2 and 3, 2014 the British press was actually very preoccupied by the theme of the immigrants from Romania because of the elimination of the labour restrictions in Great Britain for Romanians and Bulgarians. The impact of the articles published in the first three days of 2014 is a relatively low one, considering that the timeframe is very short and it overlaps with holidays and New Year holidays. Diagram No. 2. The number of articles regarding Romanian immigrants by weeks 23

24 THE ANALYSIS OF THE TERM ROMANIAN(S) ACCORDING TO THE MAIN INDICATORS The analysis of articles on publications by the number of written words, images used, distribution in social media and the number of critics commentaries The volume of information monitored by word count Diagram No. 3- The analysis of the monitored information volume, by the word count Based on the analysis of the word count by each publication, it can be seen that certain publications consider the theme of migration to be an important subject, which deserves a relatively large space (to include detailed accounts of facts, quotes of some public statements etc). On the other hand, the publications that grant smaller spaces to this them (publishing articles with a low word count) transmit the idea that this theme is not an essential one for the public agenda. From the perspective of the quantity of information included in the 63 articles analysed, Daily Mail covers 41%, with over written words in the three months on this theme. The Independent is next with 21%, over words. Daily Mirror, although it is second place by the number of articles, it is in last place by the word count, with less than 6000 words (an average of 480 words per article). The articles in The Guardian, The Independent and Daily Mail have an average by articles of approximately 1100 words. 24

25 The volume of monitored information by the number of images used. Diagram No. 4 The analysis of the monitored information volume, by the number of images used The most graphic articles are those in Daily Mail. In order to illustrate the approached subjects regarding the immigrants theme, the journalists of this publication used 99 images (an average of over 5 images per article). Matching the style of the published articles, the images accompanying the text in the Daily Mail are tabloid type, presenting to the British true photoreports of the first Romanian arrived to work in Great Britain on January 1 st 2014 he is photographed at the airport, at the time of arriving in London or at his first job. Furthermore, the articles accompanying the Romanian immigrants theme also include images of Romanian beggars in London. The least visual are the journalists of The Guardian who have used one image in each of the 6 published articles. 25

26 The distribution of articles on the Romanian immigants in social media Diagram No. 5 The distribution of articles on Romanian immigants in the media *The Daily Mail publications does not list the Share no. indicator on the site Without a direct indicator regarding the number of views per article, we have analysed the number of shares for the analysed articles for each of the monitored publications. This analysis is relevant, because the more an article is distributed, the more this increases its probability to influence the perceptions and mentalities of the readers. The direction (what type of mentalities are influenced) that this analysis is made in is analysed in the report s qualitative assessment. Therefore, one can see that although The Guardian only published 6 articles, they have had the largest impact (probably after Daily Mail) from the perspective of sharing the content in social media (8590 shares). On the other hand, the 12 articles published in Daily Mirror were distributed 3069 times in the social media. The analysis of the articles impact by the number of comments The most commented on articles are those in Daily Mail, with over 7000 comments (two thirds of the analysed article comments being on the Daily Mail website). The Guardian is the second publication from the perspective of the number of comments (28%). Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph are the least interactive publications on this theme. 26

27 Diagram No. 6 The analysis of article impact by the number of comments The most commented on article was the one titled Bulgarian and Romanian immigration hysteria 'fanned by far-right in The Guardian which registered 1651 comments. The analysis of the comments pertaining to each article is performed in the qualitative analysis of the image of Romanian immigants in the British press. The articles analysis by the assessment indicators The analysis of the occurrence of the Romanian / Romanians analysed terms Placement signifies visibility, the prominence of a term in the content of an article. The indicator is measured on scale from 1 to 3, as follows: 3 the term is used in the title/over-title/under-title, introduction, illustration and/or image caption; 2 the term is used in the first fifth (top 20%) of the article; 1 the term is used in the last four fifths (bottom 80%) of the article. 27

28 terms Diagram No. 7- The placement analysis of the Romanian/Romanians analysed In the three months of monitoring, the term Romanian/Romanians had a superior placement (meaning it was used in the title or in the elements linked to the title) in over half of the articles. Out of the 53 analysed articles, 9% referred to Romanians only in the latter part of the article. Therefore, the average placement value (measured on scale from 1 to 3) is of 2.55 for the analysed term, which means that the term Romanian was present, generally, from the beginning of the articles, being the key theme of the articles covering immigrants. The value of this index suggests the fact that the theme of Romanian immigrants is a specific one, distinct, which should preoccupy the readers. The public agenda imposed by the mass media to the readers included the theme of Romanian immigrants in the analysed timeframe, strengthening stereotypes associated with immigrants or calling for a rational attitude. 28

29 Table 15 The placement analysis of the term Romanian, by the targeted publications Online Publications Averages on the scale Daily Mail 2.72 Daily Mirror 2.00 The Guardian 3.00 The Independent 2.67 The Daily Telegraph 2.50 Averages on the 1-3 scale, where 1 is the inferior marginal placement of the term and 3- superior placement, in the title or under-title. The The Guardian publication used the term Romanian in the beginning of each article (in the title or undertitle). And Daily Mail has inserted the term Romanian, generally in the main elements of the articles. Daily Mirror approaches in its articles the theme of immigants in Great Britain in a more balanced way from this point of view. Table 16. The placement analysis of the term Romanian, by type of publication Publications categories Averages on the scale Quality 2.70 Middle market 2.72 Popular/Tabloid 2.00 Averages on the 1-3 scale, where 1 is the inferior marginal placement of the term and 3- superior placement, in the title or under-title. According to the official classification of the press in Great Britain, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Independent are quality publications, Daily Mail addresses the average public and Daily Mirror is a tabloid. Therefore, it can be seen that the tabloid publication uses the term Romanian less in the first part of the articles, compared to publications in the quality and middle market categories. The placement of the term in publications by their type conforms to the type and interests of the readers of each magazine. Tabloids have a public of the lower class and inferior middle class which often includes readers with below average education, interested more in the sensational and less in detailed political and macroeconomical analyses. 29

30 Table 17. The placement analysis of the term Romanian, by the political affiliation of the publication Parties in Great Britain Averages on the scale The Conservative Party 2.65 The Liberal Democratic Party 2.80 The Labour Party 2.00 Averages on the 1-3 scale, where 1 is the inferior marginal placement of the term and 3- superior placement, in the title or under-title. The publications supporting The Liberal Democratic Party have mostly used the term Romanian in the superior part of the articles. On the other hand, the left wing publications have treated these subjects referring more to measures and political actors in the title, thus linking the theme of Romanian immigants to the criticism of the responsible British authorities. This link also puts a negative perspective on the migration phenomenon which is seen as a weakness of the current governance in the context of the lack of jobs for the British. The analysis of the weight of the Romanian/Romanians analysed terms The weight signifies the measure in which a terms own supremacy or is dominated by another term within an article. This indicator was measured on a scale from 1 to 3, as follows: 3 the term is the central subjects and, ultimately, the sole subject of the article; 2 the terms is used in the article along with other terms, and each has approximately the same coverage; 1 the term is mentioned only in passing. Diagram No. 8 The analysis of the weight of the Romanian/Romanians analysed terms 30

31 For the most part of the selected articles, the main subject of the information is immigants, with a direct reference to Romanians (55% of the articles). In over 40% of the articles, the main theme is one of the political themes associated to migration. The general average of the score for this indicator is 2,51 (the term is usually the central subject and, ultimately, the sole subject of the article). Table 18. The analysis of the weight of the analysed terms, by the targeted publications Online publications Averages on the scale Daily Mail 2.56 Daily Mirror 2.42 The Guardian 2.50 The Independent 2.56 The Daily Telegraph 2.50 Averages on the 1-3 scale, where 1 is the inferior weight of the term and 3-the increased weight, as the main subject of the article. All the publications have approached the immigrants theme (Romanians), generally as the main theme of their article. Table 19. The analysis of the weight of the term Romanian, by the type of the publication Publications categories Averages on the scale Quality 2.52 Middle market 2.56 Popular/Tabloid 2.42 Averages on the 1-3 scale, where 1 is the inferior weight of the term and 3-the increased weight, as the main subject of the article. Moreover, by the target public of the publications there are no differences between the three categories of publications regarding the subject of the analysed articles. 31

32 Table 20. The weight analysis of the analysed terms, by the political affiliation of the publication Parties in Great Britain Averages on the scale The Conservative Party 2.54 The Liberal Democratic Party 2.53 The Labour Party 2.42 Averages on the 1-3 scale, where 1 is the inferior weight of the term and 3-the increased weight, as the main subject of the article.. The Publications supporting The Labour Party have used the term Romanian less as the main subject of the article. On the other hand, the centre publications and the right wing publications have treated these subjects as the main themes of articles, in the spirit of their political affiliations, as it transpires form the qualitative assessment below performed based on the information content of each article. Therefore, it can be expected that the impact on the social mentalities change to be stronger in the case of publications supporting the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democratic Party (and among the supporters of these parties). However there are no significant differences for this indicator, which means that the weight analysis of the analysed term according to the publication s political affiliation does not represent a strong predictor with regards to the influence over the social mentalities change. The analysis of the transmitted tendency with regards to the TERM ROMANIAN The tendency of an article is defined as the impact al the analysed terms on a neutral reader reported to the analysed term (if the article creates more of a positive or negative feeling or attitude towards the analysed term). The indicator is measured on a scale from -2 to 2, where -2 means strongly negative and +2 means strongly positive. 32

33 Romanian Diagram No. 9 The analysis of the transmitted tendency with regards to the term Strongly negative Strongly positive The analysis of the media coverage of the studies term reflects the critical/negative tone of the information presented in the online press by the five publications studies. According to the quantitative assessment, the average of this indicator, overall, is -0,68 (on the -2, +2 scale). The negative presentation tendency reached maximum levels in 22,6% of cases, compared to 39,6% of the articles with a moderately negative tendency in the approach of the subjects linked to migration which have also been associated with Romanians. The critical approach of articles more often than not has a critical tone towards the British authorities regarding the way they are handling the situation of immigrants in Great Britain. In this context, the subjects regarding Romanian immigrants are used to portray the possible negative effects of the public policies regarding migration (jobs, social services, crime rate). Regarding positive assessment, the articles in this category (over 15%) speak of the lack of arguments for the immigrants invasion theme. 33